


there is a light that never goes out

by animalSaint, FreezingKaiju



Series: i hear thunder and raise my umbrella high [5]
Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: F/F, Fear, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Pre-Relationship, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24498661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animalSaint/pseuds/animalSaint, https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreezingKaiju/pseuds/FreezingKaiju
Summary: Someone intrudes into the Katsuragi household while Rei's reading. Could it be connected to the mysterious lights outside? Or, maybe, to the fact she hasn't seen Asuka today?
Relationships: Ayanami Rei/Souryuu Asuka Langley
Series: i hear thunder and raise my umbrella high [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033542
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	there is a light that never goes out

It was nearly 6:00 PM, August 7th, when the first incident occurred.

Rei Ayanami sat at her desk, hunched over for a stretch of time long enough that she lost track, sky beginning to darken (or even more so than the fog outside). Most of the day she’s whiled away rereading _Rollen 3:16: The True Tell-All of Rainbow Man_. 

At some point, lights began flickering past the corner of Rei’s eyes and onto the wall beyond. Possibly one of the neighbors was having a party, or another search party had been called for some reason or another. She didn’t yet see a reason to look up from her book.

Then, a noise from downstairs. The front door, slamming open.

Rei froze. 

Whoever --whatever-- had just entered was breathing so heavily that she could just barely make it out. She heard a voice say something, but it, too, was too far to discern. She hoped it stayed that way.

Rei slowly closed her book. Whatever was downstairs took a few loud, heavy footsteps, then... must have tripped over something, she observed, given both the crash and the scream. 

She went over her options. Did she have any weapons? Should she confront the intruder?

No, anything that resembled a weapon was left in the kitchen. Decisively no, not unless this escalated to kill-or-be-killed.

Reconnaissance, then.

  
Very wary reconnaissance.

Rei steeled herself, as she once had in her early days; back when she served her father, back when the only meaning in her life was an affirmation of “mission complete” and the sound of her rival’s voice.  
  
She took a deep breath, and held it until she could feel her heart slow. Exhale. Slowly, she pushed the chair back, and stood.

There was no peephole in her door; Rei resolved to install one, someday. Best recourse; hide behind the door and watch through the gap.

Bated breath, calm steps. Rei remembered her training. She made sure to. Undetectability was no longer achievable, the loss of that came with the gain of health, but she could manage a relative sense of it.

But for now, she can’t see a thing.

The lights from earlier still flashed past Rei. Intermittently, in arcs, like fireflies or drunk people pretending such. Was it night yet? Was this some way Asuka had devised to signal?

  
In the distance, footsteps pounded on the tile. Whoever this intruder is, Rei thought, they have no experience in keeping a low profile.

A drawer opened, then slammed shut. Something crunched; Rei would assume it was an eggshell, from the sound, but a nearby one. An intensely loud one, if this intruder truly was downstairs. 

The intruder let out a noise that, finally, Rei distinctly recognized: a sob.

Before she could process whatever that meant, whatever could have happened there, more footsteps sound from downstairs. The final one creaks. A heavy boot, like the ones Asuka wears. On the stairs.

Despite the gap, the intruder was not viewable yet. The sounds of their movements marked them, though, as clearly erratic and unpredictable. Rei wonders if she should have improvised a weapon-- all she had were her fists.

She surveyed her room. There... within reach, there remained four books and two ballpoint pens. She grabbed one of each. They're what she had. She could improvise. Book wielded as a rock, pen gripped point down as a dagger, Rei returned to her hidden spot.

Another footstep on the stairs, a groan, then another.

Rei didn’t doubt her abilities-- and by the ostensible clumsiness of the intruder, it shouldn't be hard to take them down at all.

She raised her pen to about collarbone level, high enough to stab the neck if necessary.

Another staggered footstep up. A grunt of pain.

Then, hard and sudden, whoever it was slammed down. Rei heard bone, flesh, clothing and a bit of metal clatter against the wood. A scream nearly began, but the intruder stopped themself; how, Rei literally could not see yet.

A light flashed past, maybe from one of the windows. Strange. 

The intruder's breathing was ragged enough, and _close_ enough, to be audible.

Rei inched closer to her door, tempted to peek outside and get a quick profile. More lights flashed from outside, too quickly to be cars passing by. 

A loud thump against the wall and a gasped string of (what Rei assumed to be) expletives made it very evident to Rei that the intruder either didn’t know anyone was home... or didn’t care.

To Rei’s dismay, the intruder’s ascent resumed, now marked by a slow, steady scrape. Boots, hands, dragged against the stairs. Another string of expletives wavered through the air. Rei tightened her grip on the pen. _Is this person under a manhunt? Is that why the lights?_ As if the sentiment would assuage anything, Rei attempted the dual task of self-correction and self-intrude: _there would be more noise though, then_. The intruder coughed, hacked, wheezed like a thoroughly strangled person. Rei wished she didn’t know what that sounded like.

All her senses were on edge. Rei leaned against the doorframe, unsure about the wisest course of action. The unevenness of the intruders movements suggested some kind of physical injury, which would give Rei the advantage in a combat situation-- unless they happen to have a firearm on them. Which was nothing Rei hadn’t had to deal with before; it just meant she needed to be extra careful.

She took a deep breath and slowly pushed the door open.

Rei was prepared for a murderer. She was fully prepared for someone from her past forced actions come for misplaced revenge, for a member of the NERV Section 2 she dreaded still, for even her commander —her father— come back from the grave.

But instead, on the staircase, bruised, broken, and tired...there was one Asuka Langley Soryu.

Rei's poised arm, once ready to injure, went limp.

Asuka was haphazardly curled on the staircase, arms cradling her legs so close, so tight that it looked like she was attempting to shrink into a shell. Her eyes looked off, far away, but her mouth was still moving, whispering something to herself that Rei couldn’t hear-- she gave no indication that she knew of Rei's presence at all.

"Asuka?" That’s all Rei knew to say. 

Asuka’s head jolted up, eyes wide. From her unkempt hair to her wild eyes, Rei surmised that she has been awake for far too long.

"Rei."

“Asuka, what—“  
  
Asuka’s hands, shaky, weak, reached up and gripped Rei’s shoulders. She stammered something, but Rei couldn’t tell what she was trying to say, couldn’t even pick up a word. As if on autopilot, she reached down to grab Asuka in turn, and began pulling her up the remainder of stairs. As she did, she noticed Asuka’s nosebleed. That might not be all of it. In her arms, Asuka felt so, so frail, more even now than she had been when she broke her leg in middle school. Rei was used to being the weaker one in their...relationship, whatever it was. She was perfect, Asuka was strong, that’s what everyone saw.

Seconds pass, minutes, but eventually Rei managed to pull Asuka up the stairs. She continued to grip Rei’s shoulders, and Rei pulled her up into an approximation of a stand. Asuka still practically dangled in her arms, visibly fighting to keep her head upright. A comparison to a ragdoll flashed through Rei’s mind, but she dismissed it, purely on how much that would upset her rival. Instead, she led her, staggering, to her bed.

Asuka all but collapses, shuddering. Rei takes the moment to assess; the first and most blatant of the newfound injuries were her knees, _incredibly_ scraped up, but Rei did not comment, at least not yet. _Now is not the time_.

Blinding lights flashed once more through the window, and Asuka let out a strangled gasp. Suddenly, she began struggling, thrashing, like she was trying to escape but her injuries wouldn’t let her.

On instinct, Rei yanked Asuka aside. The light arced over her head, butter-yellow and _glaring_. Something about it struck Rei as akin to a police spotlight. Asuka clung to her again, pupils contracted, eyes wide, face the picture of fear like Rei had rarely seen before. 

“What is it?” Rei asked, on some level aware that there is an _it_ at all.

" _It’s out there_ ," Asuka sputtered, voice low but raw, too panicked to give a useful answer. " _It_ knows, _it_ knows I'm here, b-but _it_ can't know, _it's_ \--" 

Her words gave way to a fit of coughs and short breaths set between. The two of them were out of the way of the lights, but Asuka still clung onto Rei for dear life, and Rei knew hyperventilation when she heard it.

Rei took a moment to process this. 

_Something is stalking Asuka._ First conclusion, immediate: it was a thing, not a person, Asuka would have said ‘they’ for a person.

_Something is producing, or controlling, the lights._ Connect the two, and the solution presents itself. _Avoid the lights._

_Rei_ could handle this. She adjusted herself, their position, nestled more into the safe corner of the bed, tightened her grip and held Asuka closer. She reached up and adjusted one of Asuka's hairclips, hoping it could help ground her. "I will not let it see you."

Rei didn’t know if Asuka even heard her-- her fingers dug into Rei's skin through her shirt. She shuddered, her breaths shallow-- she was definitely going to pass out at this rate.

"Asuka," Rei whispered. "Asuka, look at me."

Asuka's eyes met Rei's, but the way her head tried to turn towards the window told Rei that Asuka was still beyond afraid.

"I will not let _it_ see you," she reiterated softly, hoping Asuka could truly hear her this time. "Deep breaths, Asuka. I am here with you."

Asuka took another fistful of shallow breaths, then slowed, ramping down to normal and then truly deep breaths. The sheer terror faded somewhat from her eyes, replaced by a weariness. The dark circles under them seemed more pronounced than ever. She began to give on her grip. "Rei..." she muttered, blinking, bloodshot eyes beginning only ever so slightly to fade.

The imminent danger of what is outside began to fade; the lights meant nothing now. It was only Rei and Asuka, loosely tangled together in Rei's bed, tired and worn out.

Asuka more or less collapsed into Rei's shoulder with an exhausted sigh. Rei rubbed her back gently, whispering, "I have you, Asuka."

In a sense, this was familiar. Expected. Comfortable. Rei knew that they’d both avoid and ignore any implications of this embrace. She didn’t mind. Knowing asuka came to her for safety from whatever this is was always enough.

Asuka’s mind, meanwhile, still raced. _What do I say. How do I explain. What is even happening._ She was jammed between chaos and exhaustion. Her legs ached, the cuts on her hands and knees stung like fucking crazy but all she wanted to do was sleep with Wonder Girl holding her close--

_Well, that’s fine, right?_ Totally normal attitude to have towards your rival! Not weird at all!

Either way, Asuka couldn't deny that it just felt right.

Almost on cue, the question “should we rest together?” passed through rei’s mouth, to Asuka’s ear and into the realm of reality where that suggestion now could have consequences. The rightness could be disrupted. Asuka could refuse, push her away. Rei was nearly sure this will happen. Rei was, will always be, willing to step to the light for her. She covered her mouth.

Should they? They shouldn't, they _really_ shouldn't, for the sake of Asuka's pride, but for some reason (one lost in Asuka's cluttered mind), to leave the safety, the warmth of Rei's arms just... wasn’t an option. She’s too tired for pride.

Rei wouldn't care, anyway, she concluded as some kind of rationalization. _It's fine. Practical, in fact._ It's obviously just a gesture of decency-- in her shoes, Asuka would probably do the same. There's no way Rei could see Asuka as more than a... rival. Asuka wasn’t sure if that’s a comforting thought or one that made her ache.

In the end, Asuka didn’t say anything. She couldn’t, not without saying too much. She just nuzzled into Wonder Girl’s shoulder and hoped that could ever be enough. She felt Rei's arms around her and whatever tension remains in Asuka’s body evaporated. If she cannot be loved, then at least tonight she will be held.

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my AsuRei horror au. Not dead yet, folks :3


End file.
